Select The Best CPGs For Your Facility
These tips will put you on the right track.
You don't want to fix what isn't broken, right? So if you're in the market for implementing clinical practice guidelines - or re-evaluating your existing ones - first identify clinical areas that need improving in your facility.
There are a number of ways to do that, according to Jacqueline Vance, director of clinical affairs for the American Medical Directors Association, including:
By analyzing your current outcomes and clinical practices, you'll have a good idea where to target CPGs. "For example, if the facility shows a high number of patients with unplanned weight loss, staff may wish to review or implement a protocol such as the AMDA's Altered Nutritional Status Guideline," Vance suggests. Or if you have a high number of patients with nosocomial pressure ulcers, you may want to implement a pressure ulcer guideline (see the list of CPGs in "Guidelines Galore").
The public National Guideline Clearing House (www.guideline.gov) also has a number of CPGs developed by different organizations that speak to care in long-term care facilities, advises Jean Slutsky, acting director for the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality's Center for Outcomes and Evidence. "For example, the Infectious Disease Society of America has a set on evaluation of fever and infection in such facilities," Slutsky reports.
Tip: Identify guidelines on the NGC web site by using key search words or use the browse function for disease/condition, organizations or treatment/interventions. The Web site also provides instructions to help users compile their own collection of guidelines and perform a guideline comparison.
